Queen of All the Hipsters. Really? Naah...
One of my bakers accused me of being a hipster. But she claims she still loves me anyway.
Aww noo......
Seriously, in Philly this is the Insult of Insults.
Let's back up here. For those of you who don't reside in The City of Brotherly Love, let me just 'splain somethin'. Philadelphians are obsessed with the concept of Hipsterdom. What's a hipster, you ask? Am I a hipster? Are you a hipster? Does the fact that I own a Vespa or live in squalor make me a hipster?
Maybe. Maybe. Most likely. Most definitely.
A hipster, from what I can glean, is a person in their late 20s to early 30s who wears ironic t-shirts and expensive glasses, rides a crappy but colorful vintage bike or Vespa, frequents the likes of The Khyber, The Last Drop and of course, listens to...Belle & Sebastian and its ilk. I guess. And the Belles are always the musical butt of every Hipster joke out here. Am I right or am I right, Center City-ites? But I swear to you, I don't live in squalor. I can't stand squalor. It's just not for me.
OK fine. I guess the orange John Kerry Is A Rock Star t-shirt and the black cat Bevels count. And I have friends at the City Paper. But hell, I don't own a bike of any kind, though this Jetta thing is getting rather old and I'm considering going old school and just hoofing or getting some shitty bike to ride around on. And aye, B&S-ishness fine. But still. I am not a hipster....I'm just a displaced New Yorker.
And that's the part I just don't get. As a recent transplant, these folks that people pejoratively call 'hipsters' are merely people who look like they ought to be walking around The East Village or Williamsburg. I just don't get it. And honestly, I don't get what the freakin' problem is here. Live and let live. Live Free or Die!
Speaking of, there was a huge feature in one of the local rags about it a couple of months ago, entitled 'Die Hipster Die!' and I recently saw a margarita named La Onda ("The Hipster") at Cantina El Caballito (owned by the folks who own the Royal Tavern (who also own The Khyber), a place I sold cakes to...but anyway...).
I swear to you, I hear the word 'hipster' used more in a day here than I ever heard in a year anywhere else I've ever lived. What's the deal, Philly natives?
posted by Oy Vey at 10:49 PM
2 Comments:
Wow, am I out of the scene or what? I didn't realize "hipster" was a bad thing, which I suppose makes me most decidedly un-hip. Is it synonymous with "indier than thou"?
What an interesting thing to find annoying.
And eh. If you're cool, you're cool, and you know you're cool, so that's all that matters.
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